Although humans can obtain the air and (to a lesser extent) the water they need freely, we must work to
provide our bodies with food. Before the industrial era, hunting, gathering, and farming were the primary human
activities. Technology and industrialization have greatly reduced the human labor required to produce food, and
farming has become the specialized occupation of the few. However, in the process, modern industrialized
agriculture has developed into a system with many impacts, such as water pollution, greenhouse gas production, and
the health consequences of highly processed diets. These impacts of industrialized agriculture are unsustainable
as population increases, water resources become scarce, and global warming makes the intensive use of fossil fuels
undesirable. In this course, we will examine what a more sustainable mode of food production might look like
through class work as well as hands-on work in the Soka Instructional Garden.
Units
3
